Before the For Sale Board Goes Up: The Window Paperwork St Clement Sellers Should Have to Hand
Photo: homeowner organising property documents and certificates in a folder on a kitchen table UK, via i.pinimg.com
Selling a house is mostly a test of admin. You tidy the hallway, hide the recycling bin, and then discover that the buyer's solicitor wants to know about the windows you had fitted in 2019. It is not an accusation — it is just how conveyancing works. Glazing is one of those areas where a bit of paper matters, and in St Clement, where plenty of homes have had units swapped, doors replaced or a conservatory tweaked, it is worth digging the folder out early.
This is a practical guide, not legal advice. Your solicitor will tell you what your particular sale needs. But if you can get the documents together before the estate agent starts arranging viewings, you will save yourself a scramble later.
Start with the certificate you were handed on the day
When a replacement window or door is installed in England and Wales, the work is usually notifiable under the Building Regulations. Most reputable installers deal with this by being registered with a competent person scheme such as FENSA or Certass. The upshot is a certificate — a single sheet, often emailed as a PDF — confirming the installation was self-certified and meets the relevant standards.
Find that certificate and put it with the other house documents. Buyers' solicitors routinely ask for evidence that replacement glazing complies, and a FENSA or Certass certificate is the cleanest answer. If you bought the house with the windows already done, the certificate may have been passed to you in the legal pack at the time. It is surprising how often it is still in an email inbox from 2016.
When the installer wasn't on a scheme
Not every job goes through FENSA or Certass. Some installers use the local authority building control route instead, which ends with a Building Regulations compliance certificate rather than a scheme certificate. If that is how your windows were signed off, the document might be a letter or a formal certificate from the council.
If you cannot find it, the council's building control records are the place to start. They can usually search by address and issue a copy for a small fee, though older jobs may take a little longer to trace. Do this before your buyer's solicitor asks — it is far less stressful when you are the one volunteering the information.
The guarantee nobody remembers passing on
Window guarantees are often insurance-backed and last ten years. They can be a genuine selling point, but only if the paperwork exists. A leaflet saying "10-year guarantee" is not the same as the actual policy document with the policy number and the conditions on it.
Dig out the guarantee certificate, check whether it is transferable to a new owner, and note any requirements — some policies expect the homeowner to have maintained the windows, for example. If the guarantee was with a company that has since stopped trading, the insurance backing may still be valid, but you will need the original documents to say so.
The EPC entry that doesn't quite match the sales pitch
Energy Performance Certificates include a glazing rating, and buyers do look at them. What they sometimes assume is that new windows automatically bump the EPC band. In practice, an assessor records what is there — single glazing, double glazing, or a mix — and the overall rating depends on the whole house, not just the windows.
If your EPC was done before the windows were replaced, it may be out of date. It is not usually a legal problem, but it can cause confusion. If you have a newer EPC, keep a copy with the window documents so the story is consistent.
What to do when the paperwork has genuinely gone
It happens. Houses change hands, files get lost, and installers retire. Work through it in order: contact the original installer if they are still trading, check the council's building control records, and look back through any legal pack from when you bought the property. Occasionally a previous owner or their agent can help.
If nothing turns up, the buyer's solicitor may suggest an indemnity policy. Broadly, this is an insurance policy that covers the risk of enforcement action over the lack of a certificate. It is not a replacement certificate, and it does not prove the work was done properly — it simply protects against a specific risk. Whether one is appropriate is a decision for the buyer and their solicitor, and it is usually arranged through them. Your job is to be straightforward about what you have and what you don't.
Conservatories count too, but differently
If your conservatory has glazing that was replaced, or the conservatory itself was built at some point, buyers may ask about it as part of the same conversation. Conservatories are sometimes exempt from certain Building Regulations requirements, but not always, and the rules around glazing safety — particularly toughened glass in doors and low-level panes — still apply. Keep any conservatory paperwork alongside the window certificates so it is all in one place.
A small folder, a smoother sale
Before the board goes up, gather what you can: FENSA or Certass certificates, any Building Control sign-off, guarantee documents, the current EPC, and any receipts or contracts from the installer. Scan them, name the files clearly, and keep a paper copy in a wallet. When the conveyancing enquiries arrive, you will be able to answer the glazing questions in an afternoon rather than a fortnight.
It is not the most glamorous part of selling a home. But in a street where plenty of houses have had the same windows swapped over the years, being the seller with the folder in order is a quiet advantage.
